Our blog has moved to homeschoolden.com. This is the older version of our blog... which shared the homeschooling adventures of our kids who were 8 (LD), 6 (DD) and 3 1/2 (ED) (and the years up until then!). If you are looking for all our science and history packets (and math/language arts/etc!!) -- you'll find them at our new home! homeschoolden.com

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Preschool Board Games

ED turned four a couple of weeks ago. I always ask the kids what kind of cake they want. ED wanted a Beyblade cake (the spinning top that you see down to the right of the cake). Funny, huh?! I'm no major cake maker but the kids love helping to make their own birthday cake. So here was ED's cake tah-dah!

ED got a couple of new cooperative board games from Grandma and Grandpa. ED and DD really love them. They're really terrific so I thought I'd give them a mention here in case you have birthdays coming up for your 3-5 year old.

The first game is called Hoot Owl Hoot.(affiliate link) The object is for the players to get all the owls home before the sun comes up. (The sun is at the top and moves across as players come across a sun card.) This is a game like Candy Land which only requires that the kids recognize their colors. They have to fly the owls around the game board from color to color back to their nest before the sun comes up.

The other game we've been playing a lot is called Lost Puppies. (affiliate link) Again, it's a cooperative game where all the players work together to get the puppies home.

Each player takes a turn flipping over a card. If the player flips over a night (star) card it has to be placed on the corresponding number on the gameboard. Players use a flashlight card to remove the night/star card from the board. To take the puppy home there has to be a clear path (with no night cards in the way).

These games are wonderful because they are not competitive--no winner or loser. And with the age of my girls (4 and 6) they can play them happily together independently. Still, I can easily recommend these games to the younger crowd as well (say 2 1/2 and up).

Another game we've enjoyed with all three of my kids is Dino Math Tracks Game by Learning Resource. It is a great game for helping kids learn place value.
We played this game when we were working on Place Value Activities. You might want to check out this post: Place Value Activities. We started working with the Montessori purple beads when the kids were about 4 1/2 (closer to 5 or so).

(affiliate link)

As long as I'm on the topic of gift recommendations I also must add Perler Beads (affiliate link) to the list. ED has done dozens of these and everybody (even LD) continues to make them from time to time. These are wonderful for developing fine motor skills. Kids will be into these at different ages. ED was just over 3 when she started doing these independently, but LD didn't really enjoy doing them until he was 5.

I'll add in that my six year old really loves the cooperative game, Caves and Claws. (affiliate link) She likes it and when the kids play together, they all have to work together to win the game. The object is for everyone to try to find all the artifacts while avoiding the dangers nearby. :)

Disclosure:
Please note that some of the links in this post are affiliate links,
and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide
to make a purchase.

About Me

We're a homeschooling family of five (plus a dog and cat). We lived in central Australia for 12 years and the kids were all born there. Now we live in the woods on the east coast of the USA. We loosely follow the classical model of homeschooling, but happily add in other elements that work for us.